P Explained

P
Letter:	P p
Script:	Latin script
Type:	Alphabet
Typedesc:	ic and logographic
Language:	Latin language
Phonemes:	[{{IPAlink\|p}}] [{{IPAlink\|pʰ}}] [({{IPAlink\|pf\|p}}){{IPAlink\|f}}] [{{IPAlink\|pʼ}}] [{{IPAlink\|b}}]
Unicode:	U+0050, U+0070
Alphanumber:	16
Fam1:	D21
Usageperiod:	~−700 to present
Children:	Ᵽ ₱ ℘ ⅌ ℗ ♇ ꟼ ¶
Sisters:	Π π Ⲡ П ף פ פּ ف ܦ ࠐ በ ጰ ፐ Պ պ प པ
Associates:	p(x), ph
Direction:	Left-to-right

P, or p, is the sixteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is pee (pronounced), plural pees.^[1]

History

The Semitic Pê (mouth), as well as the Greek Π or π (Pi), and the Etruscan and Latin letters that developed from the former alphabet all symbolized pronounced as //p//, a voiceless bilabial plosive.

Use in writing systems

Pronunciation of (p) by language! Orthography! Phonemes
(Pinyin)	pronounced as /link/
English	pronounced as /link/, silent
French	pronounced as /link/, silent
German	pronounced as /link/
Portuguese	pronounced as /link/
Spanish	pronounced as /link/
Turkish	pronounced as /link/

English

In English orthography, (p) represents the sound pronounced as /link/.

A common digraph in English is (ph), which represents the sound, and can be used to transliterate (φ) phi in loanwords from Greek. In German, the digraph (pf) is common, representing a labial affricate pronounced as //pf//.

Most English words beginning with (p) are of foreign origin, primarily French, Latin and Greek; these languages preserve the Proto-Indo-European initial *p. Native English cognates of such words often start with (f), since English is a Germanic language and thus has undergone Grimm's law; a native English word with an initial pronounced as //p// would reflect Proto-Indo-European initial *b, which is so rare that its existence as a phoneme is disputed. However, native English words with non-initial (p) are quite common; such words can come from either Kluge's law or the consonant cluster pronounced as //sp// (PIE: *p has been preserved after s).

P is the eighth least frequently used letter in the English language.

Other languages

In most European languages, (p) represents the sound pronounced as /link/.

Other systems

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, (p) is used to represent the voiceless bilabial plosive.

Other uses

See main article: article and P (disambiguation).

A bold italic letter is used in musical notation as a dynamic indicator for "quiet". It stands for the Italian word piano.^[2] ^[3]

Related characters

Ancestors, descendants and siblings

The Latin letter P represents the same sound as the Greek letter Pi, but it looks like the Greek letter Rho.

: Semitic letter Pe, from which the following symbols originally derive:
- Π π : Greek letter Pi
  - : Old Italic and Old Latin P, which derives from Greek Pi, and is the ancestor of modern Latin P. The Roman P had this form on coins and inscriptions until the reign of Claudius, .
  - : Gothic letter pertra/pairþa, which derives from Greek Pi
  - П п : Cyrillic letter Pe, which derives from Greek Pi
- : Coptic letter Pi
- Պ պ: Armenian letter Pe
P with diacritics: Ṕ ṕ Ṗ ṗ Ᵽ ᵽ Ƥ ƥ ᵱ^[4] ᶈ^[5]
Turned P
Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to P:^[6]
- - - - _p : Subscript small p was used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902^[7]

Derived ligatures, abbreviations, signs and symbols

₱ : Philippine peso sign
℘ : script letter P, Weierstrass p
℗ : sound recording copyright symbol
♇ : Pluto symbol
ꟼ : Reversed P was used in ancient Roman texts to stand for puella (girl)^[8]
Ꝑ ꝑ, Ꝓ ꝓ, Ꝕ, ꝕ : Various forms of P were used for medieval scribal abbreviations^[9]

Other representations

Computing

Other

Notes and References

"P", Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "pee," op. cit.
Book: Randel, Don Michael . Don Michael Randel . Harvard University Press Reference Library . Cambridge, MA, US . 2003 . The Harvard Dictionary of Music . 4th.
Web site: Piano . Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary . 19 March 2012 . 22 October 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141022131734/http://www.music.vt.edu/MUSICDICTIONARY/textp/Piano.html . dead .
Web site: L2/03-174R2: Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Middle Tilde in the UCS. 2003-09-30. Peter. Constable. 2018-03-24. 2017-10-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20171011013938/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03174r2-mid-tilde.pdf. live.
Web site: L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS. 2004-04-19. Peter. Constable. 2018-03-24. 2017-10-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20171011014355/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf. live.
Web site: L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS. 2002-03-20. Michael. Everson. Michael Everson. etal. 2018-03-24. 2018-02-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20180219081033/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02141-n2419-uralic-phonetic.pdf. live.
Web site: L2/09-028: Proposal to encode additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet. 2009-01-27. Klaas. Ruppel. Tero. Aalto. Michael. Everson. 2018-03-24. 2017-10-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20171011014359/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09028-n3571-upa-additions.pdf. live.
Web site: L2/06-269: Proposal to Add Additional Ancient Roman Characters to UCS. 2006-08-01. David J.. Perry. 2018-03-24. 2019-06-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20190614231608/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06269-add-roman.pdf. live.
Web site: L2/06-027: Proposal to add Medievalist characters to the UCS. 2006-01-30. Michael. Everson. Peter. Baker. António. Emiliano. Florian. Grammel. Odd Einar. Haugen. Diana. Luft. Susana. Pedro. Gerd. Schumacher. Andreas. Stötzner. 2018-03-24. 2018-09-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20180919051622/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06027-n3027-medieval.pdf. live.